Jack Fischer Gallery at Live Worms
1345 Grant Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94133
415.474.5411

Comment: Pretty tasty selection of Outsider, Self-Taught, Visionary, Intiutive or whatver-you-want-to-call-it art, in fact, the show includes some of the better examples I've seen in a while. A good amount is of the scratchy scribbly variety, although the Ian Pyper pieces are pretty well ordered. The sculpture's twisty coily with Philadelphia Wireman twisting wire and Judith Scott coiling string. Prices range from $100-$6000.

Decoding this Outsider caper seems a bit like dowsing or divining at times, especially with regards to what criteria the authorities use to determine relative weightiness (and selling prices) of the various players. Some of the art's unquestionably outrageously good and deserves every bit of recognition and $$$ it receives, but the more ordinary stuff, of which there are masses of heaps of oodles of boatloads, is being made by gobs of artists everywhere, all the time. And much of it looks the same, yet this one's $50, that one's $500, the next one's $2,000. Having said that, Jack Fischer's show remains a cut above.

Artist/Artists: Judith Scott, Dwight Mackintosh, Daniel Miller, L-15 aka Bernard Schatz, Philadelphia Wireman, Ian Pyper, Vahakn Arslanian, Jesse Reno, Gus Fink, Chris Giordano, Matt Sesow, Florencio Sierra.

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A couple of shots of The Poet's Gallery holiday party. It's right down the street-- 1462 Grant Ave. at Union St. Inquiries to Philip Hackett or call 415.424.2001.

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